well, i'm chinese, my husband is chinese & my 19 mth old sleeps between 7-8pm and wakes up at 7am. she normally sleeps for 11 hrs at night (wake up once for milk, then goes right back to sleep.) but she only naps for an hour a day. i've come a long way from her waking at night & sleeping during the day at 2 mths to setting this bedtime routine to sleep around sunset. I do read a lot about baby's sleep (all English books). But the main reason why I let my child sleep early is because I think it's good for her, and we get some relax quiet times at night when she's sleeping. We can go out for dinner & no need to worry that she's watching TV at home w/ the maid. Plus we can watch what WE WANT at night & not worry that she's watching it with us (you know, CSI:NY & Desperate Housewives, not exactly child friendly!!)
Chinese medicine also believe that one should sleep before 10.30pm in order for the body to rejenerate before the chi works at the gall & liver at 11pm. Chinese medicine also believes that a young child should bath before sunset & sleeps at around sunset, and wake up around sunrise, because the body clock works synchronizing the sun.
When we were in Vancouver in June, I had problem letting my child sleep at 7pm cos the sun only sets at 10pm. She was so puzzled when it looked like it was 5 pm & i was forcing her to sleep already. Finally I had to give in & let her sleep when the sun sets. That pushes her wake up time to 8am, then she'd nap for 2 hrs during the day, which still makes 12 hrs/day. her body worked this out on her own, I never wake her up, I let her wake up naturally (which is fine with me, but I noticed that although she's sleeping the same amt of hrs each day, she's obviously more tired in the mornings), and she doesn't sleep as well at night. So I figured maybe sleeping at 10pm everyday was not agreeing w/ her body resting.
One more reason for early bedtime is of course, when she starts going to school, she'd have to wake up at 6.30am. I think it'd be easier to push her bedtime later, than to bring it earlier. So I'd figured if she has a good & early bedtime I don't have to struggle with her 2-5 years down the road.
That said, a lot of my friends is AMAZED at how early I put my child to bed. Lucky for me, my husband gets off work early, so he gets to play with her an hour or so before she sleeps. yes, once in a while when he gets off work late & didn't play with her before she sleeps, But he makes an effort to get up earlier the next day to play w/ her to make up. I agree that w/ the majority of HK people working from 8am to 8pm, it's IMPOSSIBLE to have a child who sleeps early if you wanna see her/him often. This HK working hour is a very special case, not many cities in the world have working hrs like this so most books written about child sleep are aimed for regular work hours (i.e. maximum work hrs in the US & UK, what? like 6hrs/day? heh heh)
well, as long as you're happy with your child's sleep habits, everyone is getting enough sleep, and having a healthy life style, you shouldn't kill yourself for letting your child sleep a little later than you would've wanted cos everyone wants to see her/him a little longer. But anything later than 11pm is a little too late.
